Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

521–530 of 1001 posts

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#521

Post by CooCooCaCha »

galangalalgol wrote: post #232
CooCooCaCha wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve actually found running decreases my appetite.

While you are running or just in general? The former makes sense, but the latter is weird. Telling an obese person to run also makes orthopedic doctors cringe. Swimming or strength training are a lot safer for their joints. I personally find regular running makes me super hungry for anything and everything. Making sure what is at hand is healthy is critical for me.

It’s normal for people to feel less hungry after an intense run. Not everybody all the time but it’s normal.

You’re stuff about obese people and joints isn’t relevant to this discussion on hunger.

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#522

Post by newsclues »

esseph wrote: post #506
newsclues wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My nihilism is exacerbated by the people who are actively making the problem worse and viciously attacking anyone who criticizes the problem or proposes solutions. IMO some activists are exploiting homeless people and drug addicts for power and profit.

I think your last sentence is full of shit, and I'm not even saying it's wrong. What I am saying is that even if "activists" are doing... whatever, I kinda don't give a fuck? These are people. Human beings. The only shit people seem to give is to get them out of their sight and make them somebody else's problem.

You don't care that people exploit other humans beings for power and profit?

https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-homeless-audit-spendi...

https://invisiblepeople.tv/unveiling-corruption-the-dark-rea...

You are right, the people being exploited are human beings, and rather than working to end the suffering, some people end up prolonging the suffering and creating more of it, because fixing problems ends the flow of funds and power.

You aren't refuting what I am saying, you only seem to justify corruption and incompetence because the apparent intention is noble.

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#523

Post by rcarr »

socalgal2 wrote: post #353
dv_dt wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though it's popularized to blame social media and phones, economics should not be overlooked. Pay for young generations is lagging and restaurants and bar prices are super high. Public spaces for informal gatherings has shrunk - eg fewer malls

This doesn't match my experience. In fact one thing I noticed living in Japan is how much more willing people are to spend money to meet up. Lots of events costs 3000-7000 yen. Clubs and bar have a cover charge. People will organize parties where they rent a bar and tell their friends it's 4000 yen each (about $27 currently but was closer to $40) in the past. They'll even have house parties and tell everyone to pitch…

Out of all developed nations, Japan is probably the one least affected by housing pricing in the world seeing as though Japanese housing depreciates rather than appreciates over time. Rent prices in America are a staggering 177.4% more expensive than Japan[1]. Ever increasing house prices, caused by the underlying power imbalance between capital and labour, is the root of all evil in the Anglosphere. It will not stop until wages are restored to pre financial crisis levels and assets and wealth are taxed at a level equal to or higher than work. Until that happens, the wealthy will continue to squeeze everybody else out of a life.

[1]: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_resu...

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#524

Post by HaZeust »

mgraczyk wrote: post #456
kjkjadksj wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A night out literally costs 5x as much as 10 years ago

First, young people make a lot more than they did 10 years ago (both nominally and inflation adjusted). Second, no it does not cost 5x as much, closer to 15-20% more based on all the data I could find. Anecdotally in San Francisco, NYC, and Austin it is maybe 2x more at the most expensive places. EDIT: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LEU0252882200Q

>"First, young people make a lot more than they did 10 years ago (both nominally and inflation adjusted)."

I need a source on this, like [1], and I need you to also share the cost-of-living average increases, which PLAINLY show that despite wages increasing, the increasing costs for goods and services within that same time period have outpaced wage increase percentages [2][3].

And don't be a typical HN-crowder and say ANYTHING about wages in our industries — it's white-collar work, and a functioning society sees to accomplishing an ever-progressing standard of living for members in ALL sectors of the status-quo 'bell curve'.

Shit, even average household income is down 2k from 6 years ago [4]

1 - https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CEU0500000003

2 - https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CSUSHPINSA

3 - https://www.kff.org/health-costs/press-release/annual-family...

4 - https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#525

Post by FMecha »

proof_by_vibes wrote: post #331
bowsamic wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly just think it’s that before there was so little to do at home that you were just bored as hell if you didn’t go out. Now there’s just infinite entertainment of all kinds

Finally I find this argument. Agreed, and I'm baffled that people think that AI is what's going to "solve loneliness." Loneliness has already been solved by YouTube/Twitch. The brain is easily tricked into thinking that it is "being social" when it is subject to the effects of the parasocial relationships that are formed by these platforms. People's afternoons are rapidly becoming consumed by hours of YouTube where t…

It's not just streamers - fictional characters are also increasingly engineered to be this way. Besides the loot box aspect, many East Asian gacha games are built with parasocial relationships with the characters in mind, for one.

(See community controversies surrounding Girls' Frontline 2 and Snowbreak for examples.)

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#526

Post by lagadu »

anal_reactor wrote: post #414
haswell wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, it's lonely, but it's more efficient. It doesn’t make much sense to me to put loneliness against efficiency. What does it matter if it’s “inefficient” to maintain friendships of the easily is a lonely life without social connections? People are prioritizing the wrong things IMO.

Life is about gathering resources and using them to reproduce. Humans like being social because for thousands of years it was more efficient to do that socially. Nowadays it's not.

In what way is not being social a successful strategy for reproduction nowadays?

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#528

Post by albumen »

watwut wrote: post #507
Aurornis wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be surprised to learn that many people in public parks are not, in fact, drinking water out of their water bottles or La Croix out of their La Croix cans. Also, drinking in public is not allowed in much of Europe. Don’t go there and assume it is. There are also many US locations and parks where alcohol is allowed.

Where it is disallowed? Other then nordic with prohibition?

Ireland.

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/criminal-law/c...

Edit: Wikipedia page on drinking in public: "In some countries, such as Norway,[1] Poland,[2] India and Sri Lanka[3][non-tertiary source needed], some states in the United States,[4] as well as Muslim-majority countries where alcohol is legal, public drinking is almost universally condemned or outlawed, while in other countries, such as Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Germany,[5][6] the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Japan, Finland, and China, public drinking is socially acceptable."

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#529

Post by multjoy »

smith7018 wrote: post #461
soulofmischief wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is definitely a thing here in Louisiana. Drinking in public or while driving is a proud tradition. Take a trip to New Orleans for the extreme end of it, but we have drive-through Daiquiri shops all over and at least half of the people I grew up with have at least one DUI and I've never thought twice about being outside with a drink in my hand, as rarely as I do drink (I do refuse to drink and drive and am constant…

Unrelated to the conversation at hand but a strange fun fact is that it's actually legal to drink while driving in Mississippi and the Virgin Islands.

In a lot of jurisdictions, the offence isn't drinking while driving, it's having a blood/breath alcohol level above a certain threshold.

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#530

Post by mgraczyk »

HaZeust wrote: post #524
mgraczyk wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, young people make a lot more than they did 10 years ago (both nominally and inflation adjusted). Second, no it does not cost 5x as much, closer to 15-20% more based on all the data I could find. Anecdotally in San Francisco, NYC, and Austin it is maybe 2x more at the most expensive places. EDIT: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LEU0252882200Q

>"First, young people make a lot more than they did 10 years ago (both nominally and inflation adjusted)." I need a source on this, like [1], and I need you to also share the cost-of-living average increases, which PLAINLY show that despite wages increasing, the increasing costs for goods and services within that same time period have outpaced wage increase percentages [2][3]. And don't be a typical HN-crowder and sa…

Any source will do, here is the Atlanta fed

https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker

Click "age"

Then compare to price levels. Wages have outpaced price levels for this age group significantly

Here's men 16-24 showing 20% increase after CPI adjustment

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LEU0252882200Q

EDIT: the data you shared is not specific to "young people", that's why it's different. While everyone's wages are up over the last 10 years relative to prices (according to the data you shared), young people have gained much more

Post reply on HN